Blog - occasional, random thoughts on music - May 2016
Arranging a guitar piece, part 1
15.5.2016
One of my favourite occupations is arranging a tune or song for guitar, tenor guitar or mandolin. In this blog page, I'm going to describe how I make a fingerstyle arrangement for a conventional, 6-string guitar. For most of the stuff I play, which is material from the 1910s through to the 1940s and occasionally 1950s, there is rarely a "definitive" version on which to base the arrangement. If I was working on a very distinctive, popular piece by - say - the Beatles - then there's a particular sound, key, style, etc., that would be difficult (but not impossible) to move away from. In short, I have a free hand to do exactly what I want with a piece.
Whether I know the piece well or not, my starting point is very often the original sheet music, which is generally a piano score. Most of the tunes I perform are out of copyright and the original sheet music is often freely available on the web. For material still in copyright, I search commercial sheet music sites such as MusicNotes so see whether an original score is available. If so, these are generally available to buy and print for a modest sum - just a few dollars. I don't always go this route, but one of the very good reasons for at least looking at the sheet music is to check out the composer's intentions. Very often the rhythmic or harmonic structures of the tune reveal something I didn't know or wasn't aware of. Sometimes my memory of a tune, even if I've played it hundreds of times, may actually be incorrect. So the sheet music can be very useful and instructive.
Here's the first few bars of the main theme of a very well-known waltz called "Diane":
15.5.2016
One of my favourite occupations is arranging a tune or song for guitar, tenor guitar or mandolin. In this blog page, I'm going to describe how I make a fingerstyle arrangement for a conventional, 6-string guitar. For most of the stuff I play, which is material from the 1910s through to the 1940s and occasionally 1950s, there is rarely a "definitive" version on which to base the arrangement. If I was working on a very distinctive, popular piece by - say - the Beatles - then there's a particular sound, key, style, etc., that would be difficult (but not impossible) to move away from. In short, I have a free hand to do exactly what I want with a piece.
Whether I know the piece well or not, my starting point is very often the original sheet music, which is generally a piano score. Most of the tunes I perform are out of copyright and the original sheet music is often freely available on the web. For material still in copyright, I search commercial sheet music sites such as MusicNotes so see whether an original score is available. If so, these are generally available to buy and print for a modest sum - just a few dollars. I don't always go this route, but one of the very good reasons for at least looking at the sheet music is to check out the composer's intentions. Very often the rhythmic or harmonic structures of the tune reveal something I didn't know or wasn't aware of. Sometimes my memory of a tune, even if I've played it hundreds of times, may actually be incorrect. So the sheet music can be very useful and instructive.
Here's the first few bars of the main theme of a very well-known waltz called "Diane":
My first job is to transcribe the sheet music into a computer program called "Harmony Assistant", which is a similar program to "Sibelius" but simpler and much cheaper. When I've done this, here's what these same bars look like:
And they sound like this (press the arrow button to play):
The next stage is to look at the key of the tune - in this case, F major - and decide whether the tune as written "fits" the guitar. Will the melody line be within a reasonable compass, i.e. not too high and not low, for example. I've no problem with the lead line going high up on the fretboard, but I don't like too low a starting point as clear chordal backing can become a problem. A quick experiment with the melody tells me that C will be an easier key for the arrangement. I can transpose the music from F to C quite simply with the software, and the music now looks like this:
To bring the melody within guitar range - don't forget that the guitar is a transposing instrument - I'm taking the melody line up an octave on the music:
Having done that, I can get the software to generate some tablature for the melody staff:
The next step is to add some chord symbols to the music. There are several ways of doing this. I could: (a) create tablature from the piano accompaniment by transposing the piano bass clef up an octave to a treble clef range, adding the melody notes to it and then generating tablature; (b) use the written notes to work out the chords. This is a simple enough tune for me to work out the chords, and now I've added the notes from the piano arrangement, suitably transposed as required, on to the melody clef:
A good look at the tablature and music tells me that the chord symbols will be something like the diagram below. It really is useful being able to understand music notation and chord structures, however basic your knowledge might be.
At this point, I can choose whether to play chords and harmony as written, or whether to use them as the basis for something simpler or more complex. The essential thing is to preserve the harmonies as much as possible, and not lose sight of the rhythm and pace of the tune. Here's what the tablature sounds like with a guitar tone:
Doesn't sound too bad. When I pick up the guitar, I may do some more to it. Part 2 of this blog page will cover some of the techniques of "doing some more to it".